CANVAS BACK. 149 



With a roar of wings like the sound of many waters, 

 as if actuated by a single impulse, the feathered army 

 rises in the air, and captained by a few old birds, sur- 

 vivors of many a battle, the return journey commences. 

 With a few preparatory wheels around the vicinity of 

 their summer home, which many of them will never 

 see again, the leaders head to the south, and, at a lofty 

 height, guide the main body at a great speed toward the 

 promised land. 



On Puckaway Lake, in Wisconsin, Canvas Backs and 

 Red Heads would alw^ays make their appearance on the 

 loth day of October. It w^as a very singular fact, but 

 we could always be certain of seeing some of these 

 Ducks at that date; no matter what the weather may 

 have been up to that time, and even if the season had 

 been unusually cold, these birds did not appear before 

 the loth. The lake contained plenty of wild rice and 

 celery, and before it was closed by ice the Canvas Back 

 would become very fat upon this food, and were not sur- 

 passed in delicacy of flavor by any shot upon the famed 

 waters of the Chesapeake. Like the Red Heads and 

 some other diving ducks, the Canvas Back keep out in 

 deep water and raft together in great numbers, seeking 

 their food at the bottom. Their feet, although large and 

 powerful, are not of much assistance in descending to 

 the depths, but the wangs are the bird's chief reliance 

 for propulsion, and it flies under water as it does in 

 the air, and the feet are employed mainly for guiding and 

 altering the course. This method of propelling itself 

 under water is not by any means the sole attribute of the 

 Canvas Backs, for not only do many other Ducks act 

 in the same way, but different species of water birds, 

 not Ducks, also. 



The flight of the Canvas Back is not probably ex- 



